FRAGRANT MILKWEED ON SUMMER’S FIRST DAY
The summer solstice morn
Sun-warmed my neck
A green-girded path
Stretched out ahead
From where,
Below the hill
Sou-westerly wafted warm
To carry
Faint-scented nectar
On this damp-morning air
Among Dogbane and Horse weed high
There, drooping Milkweed-bloomed
Tiny five-part flowers
Nectar full
Each purple hooded
From where
The only sound
Bombus buzzing
In the warm summer air.
OURS IS A BRINY WORLD
Aristotle (350 BC) was the first to cogently describe what we call the water or hydrologic cycle, stating in his “ Meteorology”(@340BC) “by the sun the finest sweetest water is everyday carried up …into vapor..where it condenses into clouds by the cold…and so returns to earth”… as rain.
The hydrologic cycle states that water circulates through the atmosphere, oceans and on and within continents and into rivers all driven by solar radiation. Evaporation produces water vapor which condenses into clouds and which eventually produce precipitation in the form of liquid rain, or ice in diverse forms. Rain falls to earth, flows over the surface or seeps underground on its eventual way to the world ocean. On this course, fresh water tends to dissolve minerals such as salts and carry them to the sea. Thus the seas become salty.
Did you know that the Earth is the only “watery planet” in our solar system? Blue water covers more than 70% of the planet’s surface. Almost all of it ( 97%) is of the briny type, undrinkable, useless for washing clothes, cooking or cleaning. The “fresh” or “sweet” water we so crave on a hot summer day makes up only 3% of the total. Of that 3% fresh water, most of it, or about 69%, is still locked up as solid ice in mountain and continental glaciers. (We are in an “interglacial” warming period of the last glacial epoch. That is one reason why the Earth’s temperature is warming). Most of the remaining thirty-one percent (31%) of fresh water is found below ground—as ground water while only 1% (of the 3%) is the sparkling surface waters in rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and not so sparkling swamp and marsh water.
As a youngster living close to the rock-strewn North Shore of Long Island, one learned early on just how “briny” sea water was. Long Island Sound water tasted salty, and was more dense than fresh water, so it pleasantly buoyed up a skinny, boney kid who struggled to swim. For kids, swimming and floating was easier in the Sound than in the fresh water in near-by fresh water Deep Pond.
Then too Long Island Sound water left a film of dried salt all over your body. If your clothes were soaked at the beach, or while boating, salt crystals formed in the fabric and remained there to keep a kid’s sweaters damp and clammy permanently. That is, until Mom put them through the washer.
But it was the huge, rough surfaced erratic boulders scattered along our beach which provided absolute visual proof. On any hot summer day during ebb tide (low water) one could always find clumps of little grayish-white salt crystals in the small depressions of those big boulders. On flood tide, sea water collected in the hollows and evaporated away on the ebb tide, leaving behind a teaspoon cluster of grayish crystals. My friends and I tasted this “sea salt”. The crystals were salty, and a bit more bitter than regular table salt. Sea salt is—just like table salt—mostly sodium chloride, but it has other “chlorides” as well, such as potassium and magnesium chloride. Coming from a depression in a sea side rock it had as well, bits of seaweed, barnacles and brown algae too.
Oceans are salty. The average salt content of the world ocean is about 35 parts of salt to one thousand parts water (or 35ppt). That is equal to about 35 grams of “salt” in each kilogram (1000g, or 1 liter) of sea water. In “Mom’s kitchen” terms that is about 1.2oz of salt (in “weight” oz) in @ two pounds of sea water (or about one really full one-quart bottle of water). Another way to say this is that sea water is about 3.5% salt.
Some oceans are saltier than others. The Mediterranean and Red Sea are salty bodies of water. The Red Sea and near-by Persian Gulf salinities are in the 40g per liter or 40 ppt or 4% range. The eastern Mediterranean has similar high salinity. Both bodies of water are located in global desert zones (the desert latitudes (30N and 30 S) and have few fresh water rivers flowing into them. These oceans experience high levels of sea water evaporation with little replenishment of fresh water by rain or river inflow. While marine bodies such as Long Island Sound, partly enclosed by land, in the temperate and rainy Mid Latitudes where rainfall is high and where major fresh water rivers and streams empty into it result in lower salinity levels. Long Island Sound water averages about 2.7% salt while, across Long Island, in the Atlantic Ocean near Smith’s Point Beach, sea water is about 3.5% and even tastes considerably saltier. Saltiness is not confined to marine environments
Human body fluids are salty too. Blood, urine, tears and sweat all have salt concentrations on a weight to volume basis of about 0.9% or 9g of salt per liter of fluid. (Or @ 0.4-0.5% on weight to weight ratio) While sea water has about 35g per liter or is 3.5% salt. Thus sea water is almost four times “saltier” than our body fluids. See below. Except for those regions above, the World Ocean is very well mixed, and all off shore marine water has the average of about 35 grams of salts in every liter of sea water. That is a lot of salt!
To understand how much salt that represents, one might imagine a circumstance in which all the ocean water were to evaporate away. (Keep in mind, that when sea water evaporates only water (H2O) leaves the ocean. Salt is trapped in the remaining water and remains behind permanently.) With its present salinity and assuming the planet was a perfect sphere, some investigators have calculated that the evaporation process would leave a thick layer of salt crystals about 131meters thick ( @ 430 ft) all across the Earth’s sea bottom ( Oceans represent @ 70% of the earth surface) . Obviously that amount of salt is a huge unimaginable amount of salt. But where does it come from?
Sodium Chloride (NaCl) is most common “sea salt” because the element sodium is one of the more common elements in the Earth’s crust (It is about the sixth most common). But the element chlorine is rare as a crustal element. So one wonders where did all this chlorine come from to combine with sodium to produce the vast quantities of sodium chloride (and the other chloride salts) we find in the world ocean
Salts are formed as the rocks and minerals of the earth’s crust (the rocky continents) are chemically altered by contact with water and gases of the atmosphere. The Earth’s crust is generally divided into lighter less dense rocks which form the higher standing continents and the denser rocks which form the crust of the ocean basins. The crust is primarily composed of the elements oxygen and silicon along with aluminum and other metallic elements which make up the bulk of the solid earth’s rocky crust.
A very common rock forming mineral, plagioclase feldspar, is a sodium rich feldspar (It is chemically a sodium-calcium aluminosilicate). Plagioclase feldspar is one of the most abundant mineral type since it is a major constituent of Earth’s mantle rocks (which make up 80% of earth volume). As a result of volcanic processes these deep earth minerals are released violently or extruded quietly onto the earth’s surface and exposed to its atmosphere. When this occurs they are chemically and physically altered in a process called “weathering”. The weathering process of plagioclase feldspars is a main source of the sodium ions.
Whereas, chlorine is a much less common element. However, chlorine is found in volcanic gases in the form of gaseous HCL. Volcanic eruptions from the deep earth produce great quantities of water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide which make up 99% of volcanic gas volume. The remaining 1% are gases such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen chloride, and other even more rare gases. (The water vapor from volcanic eruptions no doubt is the source of the Earth’s oceans.)
Thus in the Earth’s ancient history the ions necessary to produce sodium chloride seem likely to have been derived from the elemental geological process of weathering of sodium bearing plagioclase-rich rocks and the explosive exhalations of chlorine bearing gases from volcanic eruptions. The latter produced chloride ions while the former produced sodium ions.
Thus the massive sea salt amounts in the present day ocean, are the result of the long slow process of weathering of rocks (Na or sodium ions) combined with the continual intermittent gaseous volcanic exhalations ( HCL) of the chloride ions from the earth’s interior.
It must have taken billions of years for these processes of salt formation to reach the present state of ocean salinity. The world ocean salinity must have been much less in the distant past. Perhaps when the simplest eucaryote cells formed in a rocky ocean pool billions of years ago ocean salinity was much lower. This may explain why present day ocean salinity is about four times that of human body fluids.
(Incidentally, about 6 million years ago (6 MYA) the entire Mediterranean Sea actually did evaporate away and it left behind thick layers of salt! This occurred when the Mediterranean’s only connection to the Atlantic Ocean closed up as a result of the African continental plate moving north to press into Europe. No Atlantic water could flow in to the sea basin to replace the water constantly evaporating away. The result left thick layers of salt and other evaporites on the sea floor. The dry land connection from Africa to Europe also permitted plants and animals from Europe and Africa to mix as they moved across the dry landscape. (That is another story).
A turkey by any other name would taste as sweet.
June 4, 2024
Traveling today on a narrow country road winding though a wooded area, the auto ahead of me came to an abrupt stop. A hen turkey was slowly and deliberately crossing the road just ahead. A neat orderly line of seven tiny “poults” or baby turkeys followed the hen. I watched as the hen crossed the road with a military like line of tiny gray poults following. The hen and her brood disappeared one by one into the brush on the opposite side of the road. The car ahead started to move. Alarmingly, at that moment, an eighth poult emerged from the far side of the road running frantically to catch up with its mother and siblings. Again, the car ahead stopped short, as the last poult skittered passed the front tire and it too disappeared into the brush. Only then traffic slowly moved on.
What a lovely sight. Turkeys have become so common these days that regular polite interactions with this adaptable, large wild bird leave most suburbanites nonplussed. We all can marvel at the ability of the turkey to survive and prosper in a dangerous man-made world of scattered remnant woodlands, road traffic, housing developments and numerous domestic predators (i.e. cats and dogs).
The turkey’s success in suburbia is, in part, the result of the the return of forests! New York State’s land area is almost two-thirds forested. NY state has about 18 million acres of forest representing about 61% of the total land area. Much of this forest land is excellent turkey habitat. Then too the Wild Turkey is a big bird—most weigh about 15-20 pounds. At that size they are able to defend themselves well from the most common small predators found in modern forests. Then too they are also excellent short distance fliers. They can escape certain predators by flying. With their ability of flight they can also exploit food and roost sites which are scattered in wood lots often separated and unavailable to terrestrial bound wild life by busy road ways. They roost in trees at night, which provides them protection from ground roaming predators. Their tendency to flock together offers further protection in the form of numbers. They are also pretty bsmart.
I recently observed a flock eight birds comprised of hens, yearlings and gobblers who were attempting to cross a busy triple intersection. The intersection was divided with a raised concrete and stone, planter with bush roses and tall grass . Somehow the flock retreating from a brushy Town recharge basin made it across the first road, perhaps at a red light. But when the light changed they were faced with speeding traffic on two roads. Having no alternative, the flock flew up onto the narrow rose planted divider and sat there cramped up together seemingly trapped there and reduced to just watching speeding traffic pass by. I observed them for a while from a distance. They seemed unperturbed by the traffic, pointing human fingers and snapping photographers. Finally, when the traffic light changed and the flow of traffic abated they jumped down, led by one of the larger hens, slowly and deliberately made their crossing into an abandoned parking lot which bordered a wooded lot which seemed their destination.
The turkey hen is not only wise. It is highly protective of its young. On another occasion in early spring observation, I encountered a mother hen herding eight tiny gray and fluffy poults. The area she had chosen for her brood was a brushy woodland crossed by an asphalt-surfaced bike path. I walked on this path regularly and had seen this hen and her poults the day before. (Perhaps the one seen and recorded above crossing the roadway.) Coming up over a rise, I observed her ahead. As I approached, she and her brood of poults were crossing the path. I counted three poults which followed her across the path..but the others I expected were slower and I assumed they were behind her. As I arrived in closer to her vicinity, I assumed that the hen and some of her poults were on one side of the path, while the other five (?) were on the other side. Her brood appeared to be separated by the path/
As a result, as I approached, I was met with angry cackling and clucking from the high grass border the pathway. Then as I came closer the hen appeared out of the brush rushing along close to the side of the path in high grass anxiously pacing along with me and clucking angrily.
I seemed to have aroused her concern. She was in protective mode. But I just continued on, trying to outpace her. But angry turkeys can run very fast on the ground. As I walked faster she kept up with me. Then without warning, she turned and flew directly at me, rising up steeply with her feet outstretched aiming for my head. I felt the current of air that her broad wings—a good three to four feet wide—created ruffle my hair. I ducked, as her feet with, long reddish nails passed just over my hat. I yelled and swung my arms out wide. But this made no impression, for she landed on the opposite side of the path and simply turned and made another flying pass at my head.
I stopped, making an attempt at a defense by waving my arms vigorously and yelling: “Scat..Go Away, Scat” but this seemed only t arouse her more. She turned again and jumped at me, almost reptilian like, landing now on the center of the path. She had my number now. She must have realized, I was more frightened of her than she was of me.
The angry hen turkey clucking loudly, faced me from the center of the path. She stared at me with one angry eye, clucking loudly which made her long neck throb and the dangling gray wattle on her head jiggle violently, She spread her wings wide. The wide wings seemed to more or less cover any route of escape I had. So I simply turned around and retreated. But that was a mistake.
Seeing my retreating back, seemed to only encourage her attack. She flew at me again. This time knocking the hat off my head with her feet. I grabbed my hat and turned to face her, waving the ineffective protection of the soft hat at her, as I slowly backed away and yelled —noticing that the sound of my voice cracked as I yelled and my lips felt dry. Backing away slowly for about fifty feet seemed to get me out of her threat zone. At that point she quietly turned into the brush and disappeared. I didn't wait to see if she rejoined her poults. I turned and walked briskly back to where I started with a pulse rate much higher than usual for a brisk walk.
When observed in the field these wild birds are a startling reminder of the underlying principle of the fact that the natural law still governs us all. Though commonly seen, on roadways, bile paths and elsewhere the life and history of this now much more common species is very little known. Even their very name “turkey” elicits questions.
How did a beautiful American wild bird get to be a “turkey”? Is the designated name derived from the term for a nation state, a festive meal, a broad breasted woman, a bad play, a flop, or an inept person?
The North American wild turkey Meleagris gallopavo is a native American bird, only its name “turkey” originated from that Middle East (ME) nation. The turkey of North America and the ME nation have only a very tenuous and convoluted connection to the fact that they share* the same name. In fact, we might as well settle this here and now by a brief aside as to the origin of the name “Turkey” for the nation.
The Ottoman Empire which held control over southeastern Europe, the Levant, and North Africa from the 14th to 20th Centuries was also called the “Turkish Empire” or “Turkey” and has been known as “Turkey” for more than six hundred years.
Some linguists suggest the designation “turk” meaning “fearful” or “powerful” and used by the Persians or Arabs to describe marauding tribesmen surging out of eastern Europe north of the Black Sea and settled in Anatolia. The name “Turkey”stuck to the region where these tribes settled.
One of the earliest recorded usages of the term “Turkey” for a nation or place is in the writings of the late 14th century English poet and civil servant Geoffery Chaucer who used the term “Turkeye” in his “The Dream of Chaucer”. The modern nation of Turkey became an independent nation in 1921 after the break up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW I.
Interestingly, in modern times, with the native bird of America being bred and raised world wide, the slang use of the word, the confusion regarding the name, motivated the Turkish government to alter their name to avoid confusion. *In 2021 the Turkish delegation to the UN proposed a declaration to the General Council of the United Nations establishing a spelling revision to the formal name of the nation previously known as Turkey. Henceforth the nation formerly known as Turkey will now be known as “Turkiye” (an umlaut—a two dot accent— is marked over the “u”). The pronunciation is almost unchanged in the English language, perhaps with the addition of a soft “e” sound at the end.
But what about our wild native bird?
The Wild Turkey is native of North America. It is a large gallinaceous or “chicken like” ground dwelling bird. The male, gobbler, may reach 4 feet in height, and the female or hen about 3 feet tall, the male might weigh in at more than 20 pounds and the hen somewhat less. The bird’s color is generally brown or coppery with iridescent highlights. Its tail is banded in white. The skin of its head is bare of feathers and warty. The gobbler’s head is red while the hen’s head is gray. The male has a black or reddish “beard” which hangs from its neck.
This species originally ranged across almost all of North America from Florida to Maine and west to parts of California, (excepting western desert and treeless regions) south into parts of Mexico, and thence to the Canadian border. Its present range today is nearly coincident with its pre-Columbian natural range .
Native Americans dwelling within its natural range all across North America hunted the turkey for its flesh, skin, feathers, and its eggs. Turkeys provided an excellent source of fat and protein, the hollow bones were used to make certain tools, such as awls, whistles, sewing needles, and decorative beads. The skins served as a substitute for deer hides. In the northeast, where winters were severe, Native American, Woodland Stage hunters (3000 BP-500 BP ) hunted the Whitetail Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as a preferred source of meat and protein, but also heavily depended upon deer for skins or hides used to make warm winter robes and winter clothing essential for survival in the northeast. Late Woodland, and early colonial historic accounts of native dress suggest that when deer populations plummeted due to overhunting or disease, native hunters turned to the wild turkey for their skins. Turkey skins with feathers attached could be sew together and adapted into use as winter cloaks and other garments when deer hides were scarce. Other natives used turkey feathers in their ceremonial and religious activities and especially for headdresses.
What did American natives call this essential source of food, decorative feathers, tools and winter clothing? It was not “turkey”. In the northeast coastal region and on Long Island New York anthropologists and native linguists report the Algonkian word for the wild turkey as “nahiam”, while the Narragansett who lived across LI Sound in southern Connecticut, called these birds “nahenan”. Further north, along the coast, the native Abnaki in Maine used the term“nahame”for the the Wild Turkey. These Native American Algonkian speakers continued to hunt wild turkey up to colonial times. However in southwestern portion of the turkey range, especially in Mexico, where the climate, population density, and natural setting may have limited the effectiveness of hunting and gathering and favored domestication. For some reason the Aztec and the Maya turned to domestication over hunting wild birds.
The Aztec of central Mexico (1300-1521AD) seem to have been first to domesticate the turkey native to their range as early as 300BC. There is physical evidence of turkey bones of the North American Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) at certain Maya (@ 250AD to 1697AD) sites in Guatemala. This North American species is not native to tropical lowland of Guatemala, thus these birds must have been traded from Mexican Aztecs(?) and then established as domestic livestock in Guatemala where they may have been used at a feast or for sacrificial purposes. Other earlier evidences in the form of ceramics and design motifs are present in Aztec sites in Mexico, where these birds were known to have been raised for food and skins. In Nahuatal, the language of the Aztec, the word for the turkey is “huehxolo-tl”. Again, not even close to “turkey”.
In the 15th and 16th Centuries a growing desire for wider knowledge of the world known as the European Renaissance led many of the wealthy, leisure classes to import exotic plants and animals from abroad to establish botanical and zoological gardens which were popular pastimes. To this end, a vibrant trade grew up between Europe and the Middle East for exotic plants and animals. The Ottoman Empire, also known as Turkey at that time reigned over a vast area Middle East region extending west along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It included the modern states of Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and much of North Africa, with its center at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). Turks in Istanbul were well situated to trade with African suppliers and could readily trans-ship cargoes of exotic animals and plants from Egypt’s port at Alexandria across the Mediterranean to Rome, Marseille, or elsewhere in the Mediterranean.
Among these many exotics was the Helmeted Guinea Fowl, (Numidia meleagris) a gallinaceous bird native to tropical Africa. The Guinea Fowl was introduced into Europe by way of Turkey in the 15th to 16th Centuries. It was eventually introduced into England where these birds, became popular barnyard denizens, bigger than chickens, able to roam freely in the barnyard and protective of their flock to be useful as “guard birds” for other poultry. They became a popular source of eggs and meat. Their origin by way Turkey encouraged the name “Turkey chickens” . Although some birds were actually imported directly from Africa by way of Portuguese traders.
The Spanish conquistadores defeated both the the Aztecs (in 1521) and the Maya (in 1679). From these conquered lands they sent home to Spain valuable gold, silver and other wealth. Among these valuables sent back to Spain were flocks of Aztec domesticated turkeys (called “pavo” by Spanish) In the late 16th Century, these Spanish, Aztec bred North American birds were widely distributed in Europe. In fact today almost all modern-day domestic turkeys can be traced back to this strain of Mexican (Aztec) domesticated Wild Turkeys sent from the New World Spanish colonies back to Europe.
To the English, these novel Spanish birds looked like the “Turkey Chicken” or Guinea Fowl which were earlier arrivals in Europe. This new larger arrival to the European barnyard were soon tagged with the name ”turkey”—not because they came from there but simply because they resembled the “Turkey Chicken” or guinea fowl which was by this time a common European poultry. The turkey was larger and a better protein source and possibly more flavorful than the Guinea Fowl and quickly became the more common and popular barnyard poultry of Europe and the British Isles.
Oddly, by the1620s when the first English colonists arrived in the New World “turkeys” were so common in England that the early colonists actually carried flocks of British-bred strains of domestic turkeys with them to New England. The Pilgrims landing in New England were probably unaware that the “turkey chicken” that they brought to Plymouth in 1620 was not from Turkey but was a native North American species—returning home . It is possible that the Plymouth colonists may have actually celebrated the famous (mythical?) First Thanksgiving feast with a well cooked domestic turkey with origins in Mexico, and not a wild bird perhaps wandering not far from the feast site in the forests of Massachusetts.
The fate of the North American Wild Turkey (M gallopavo) was not as sanguine as that of its domestic relative. As the New England colonies expanded and forests were cleared for farms the wild turkey slowly succumbed to loss of habitat and to unregulated hunting. By the late 19th Century the Wild Turkey, like the Buffalo (North American Bison) it was almost hunted out of existence. Small isolated Wild Turkey flocks remained in remnant forests of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia and other parts of its natural range. In the late 20th Century it was from these isolated flocks of birds that conservationists trapped wild turkeys for restocking projects.
On Long Island, where clearing of forests and expansion of farmland reached its zenith by before the mid 19th century all wild turkey were probably extirpated as a result of forest clearing and loss of habitat as almost the entire island’s forests were cleared for farming. Even in the late 18 Century during the Revolutionary War, most forests on Long Island had been cleared and turned into paddocks for cattle. Historic accounts from eastern Suffolk County tell of British Ships sailing along the Long Island North Shore coast, with a seaman posted in the main top mast with a spy glass, to spot colonist’s cows and sheep in farm fields. When cattle were detected, the captain would send a contingent of marines to confiscate the valuable cows and sheep as war booty. There was not enough forest cover on Long Island to hide domestic cattle from spies on British ships.
As a field archaeologist, working extensively in central and eastern Suffolk County from 1970s to 2000, I had never seen any evidences of wild turkey on Long Island. Then in 1992, while surveying an extensive forested area in Upton, NY I came upon a large bird track in the fresh mud of a forest clearing. The track was too big to be a crow or pheasant and I concluded it could only be that of a turkey. I placed a pencil along side and photographed it to support my story. But the following day, one of my field workers returned to our site camp claiming to have seen two huge turkeys sitting in a tree, and another, on the ground—a gobbler— acting very aggressively to the human intruder.
Today, as noted ablove, every domestic turkey, that becomes the centerpiece of a Thanksgiving dinner can be related back to that species first domesticated in Mexico and transported east to Europe by the Spanish. Today, the turkey has become the most widespread and popular source of poultry meat in the world. It has long supplanted other species as a product for festive and ceremonial meals, and in recent years has jumped from being a seasonal source of festive dinners to an all-year-around, lean and ecologically attractive lean meat and protein food source. It is sold as chopped meat, turkey bacon, turkey sausage, turkey “ham” or sandwich meat, roasted cooked and sliced for use as a sandwich meat as well as a special treat of the holiday season. .
The USA is the largest producer and exporter of turkeys. In 2021 US farmers produced 217 million birds or about 5.6 billion pounds of turkey. Minnesota and North Carolina are the two top producing states with each producing over 30 million pounds, while Iowa Missouri Arkansas and Virginia follow close behind generating more than 10 million pounds each. In 2021, the US consumer purchased over 5.6 billion pounds of turkey or almost 17 lbs per person which is just about double what was consumed in 1970.
The wild turkey was reintroduced into the forests of Suffolk County, LI, New York in 1990 when 75 birds from upstate NY where introduced into two wooded areas on LI. Today the Wild Turkey is a very common site in the county. The State of NY Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that there are nearly 200,000 wild turkeys in New York and of those there are over 3,000 on Long Island, most in Suffolk County. The state of NY DEC has also provided over 700 wild birds trapped in NY to other surrounding states, such as Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire in an effort to encourage reintroduction of the species back into its natural range in the North East USA. In 2015 the first fall and spring hunt was allowed by the state. In 2024 the spring Turkey hunt opened on May1, 2024.
The Wild Turkey has had an interesting history and a wild globe circling trip.
